Internet users enthusiastically consume of video and other multimedia content. Such content is often distributed using code, such as HTML or other markup code, configured to invoke the capabilities of an application to retrieve the content and render the content according to a video rendering application programming interface (API) exposed by the application. As an example, a runtime environment such as the Adobe® Flash® player or AIR® runtime environment (both available from Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, Calif.) may be used to render video. However, some users may not have access to a device that supports such a runtime environment.
Recently, the HTML standard has been extended to include video rendering APIs invoked by including the <video> and other elements in HTML code whereby a browser can be used to render the video natively. Despite recent expansions of APIs to add video and other support to browsers, there remains room for improvement in both the user experience and the experience of developers who work to distribute content to the users.